Courts across Uganda delivered major rulings last week, ranging from the Supreme Court overturning a wife’s murder conviction to four local government officials facing corruption charges, a former diplomat cleared for possible extradition to the U.S., and a commercial dispute that ended with a brewery ordered to pay over Shs 1.5 billion.
In the week’s headline judgment, the Supreme Court quashed the murder conviction of Nakku Jackline, who had spent nearly six years serving an 18-year-and-nine-month prison sentence for the 2018 killing of her husband, Ssenyonjo Eric Kiddu, in Mukono District.
Jackline was convicted by the High Court in June 2019 after prosecutors argued she had intentionally unlatched a side door to allow two unidentified killers into the family home and failed to raise an alarm.
The Court of Appeal upheld her conviction in December 2023. However, a five-judge panel on the Supreme Court ruled last week that the circumstantial evidence relied on by the lower courts was far too weak to support a guilty verdict.
The justices highlighted critical flaws in the state’s case. Forensic tests on the iron bar used in the murder revealed no touch DNA linking Jackline to the weapon.
The court also rejected the idea that an unforced door proved Jackline had let the attackers in, noting that lower courts failed to consider simple alternative explanations, such as her husband returning home late after drinking and leaving the door unlocked himself.
Additionally, prosecutors failed to call the family’s housemaid, Akello Evelyn, whose testimony could have clarified key events that night. Finding no evidence that Jackline shared a criminal plan with the attackers, the Supreme Court set aside the decisions of the lower courts and ordered her immediate release.
While Jackline regained her freedom, the government’s anti-corruption drive picked up speed in the lower courts as four local government officials from Mitooma District and Mbarara City were arraigned on allegations of abuse of office and financial mismanagement.
In Mitooma, three officials, District Water Officer Eng. Geofrey Tumusiime, District Education Officer Peace Gloria Barungi, and Bitereko Health Centre IV in-charge Frank Kwijuka, were remanded until September 16, 2026.
Tumusiime and Barungi allegedly signed off on completion certificates claiming a three-classroom block at Rutaka Primary School was 68 per cent and later 100 per cent complete, despite investigators finding the work incomplete.
The approvals resulted in an irregular Shs 40.9 million payment to Ruhinda Technical Services Limited. Kwijuka faces separate charges of abuse of office and neglect of duty for allegedly self-authorizing payments to his own account without independent approval between July 2025 and March 2026.
In a separate case, former Mbarara City Town Clerk Abirebe Assy Tumwesigire was also remanded until September 16 over an irregular 2022 licensing deal that granted commercial space at Mbarara Central Market to ATC Uganda Limited.
The arraignments follow Local Government Minister Balaam Barugahara’s nationwide “Expose the Corrupt” campaign targeting administrative irregularities across districts. At the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court, Chief Magistrate Ritah Kidasa Neumbe cleared the way for the possible extradition of Michael Katungi Mpeirwe, the former Diaspora Affairs director for the Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU), to the United States.
Katungi is wanted by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on three criminal counts: conspiracy to distribute over five kilograms of cocaine, conspiracy to possess firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, in furtherance of drug trafficking, and providing material support to the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Chief Magistrate Neumbe dismissed all preliminary objections raised by Katungi’s legal team. Addressing his claim of diplomatic immunity from his past service as a deputy head of mission, the court ruled that immunity protects diplomats only in the country where they are actively accredited.
Because Katungi had served in Nigeria, neither Uganda nor the U.S. owed him diplomatic immunity. The magistrate acknowledged that no Ugandan police file had been opened against Katungi and that the key domestic police witness, D/SSP Kule Yona, had no direct personal knowledge of the alleged conspiracy.
However, the court ruled that the authenticated U.S. indictment, arrest warrant, and extradition request met all legal thresholds. Katungi was remanded to prison pending a final surrender decision by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
In the commercial division, the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by Uganda Breweries Limited and ordered the company to pay Shs 1.594 billion to Seroy Airport Hotel Limited for unlawfully terminating a beer distribution contract.
Seroy was appointed a distributor in March 2013 and subsequently invested in land, warehouses, vehicles, and staff to meet the brewer’s operational demands. However, Uganda Breweries abruptly terminated the contract without notice eight months later, withdrew funds directly from the hotel’s bank account, and called in its bank guarantee.
In 2016, High Court Justice Christopher Izama Madrama ruled the termination unlawful and awarded damages to the hotel. Uganda Breweries appealed, but Justice Cheborion Barishaki of the Court of Appeal dismissed the company’s appeal and upheld Seroy’s cross-appeal.
The appellate court ruled that the High Court had undervalued the hotel’s losses regarding land, vehicles, staff salaries, and unrecovered credit sales, ultimately increasing the total award to Shs 1.594 billion in damages, interest, and costs.
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